Brossart football regroups this season under new coach

ALEXANDRIA – Because of limited numbers, keeping players healthy will be a key concern when the Bishop Brossart High School football program starts full-contact practice in August.

Keeping their minds and their attitudes will be just as important as the Mustangs prepare to embark on the 2014 campaign, which is as much about building for 2015 as winning games this fall.

“I tell them every day that I’m pleased with their attitude,” varsity head coach Paul Wiggins said. “They started behind the 8-ball but they can’t use that as an excuse.”

Wiggins is taking over the program this year after an awkward, tumultuous summer for the Mustangs. During June, the school wasn’t sure if it would have enough players to compete this fall, and had considered playing this season as an independent and withdrawing from its Class 2A district.

The program, which lost nine seniors from last year, collected 20 players to compete, but had to replace its head coach in the meantime as Lee Teegarden resigned. Rob Howard took the job earlier this month then gave it back almost immediately. Wiggins, who has run the middle school program in the Brossart system for five years, agreed to take over the varsity this year.

He said those 20 players are still in camp and he hopes to attract a few more as the preseason progresses.

“At this point we’re not in equipment,” he said. “We have a lot of conditioning, a lot of technique breakdowns and fundamental workouts. Eventually, you have to hit on each other a little bit. Low numbers mean you don’t have a lot of room for a lot of injuries.”

Wiggins had helped with the varsity team during Friday night games as he oversaw the middle school program, which has around 20 athletes as well.

“I’ve turned over my middle school program to one of my longtime assistants,” he said. “We practice around the same time and I try to check on them as much as I can, but I’ll miss them.”

Having a solid middle-school program is key to varsity success down the road, though the Mustangs are still playing catch-up there.

“The disadvantage that we have is that a lot of our boys are playing for the first time, versus a lot of areas where they’ve been playing since first grade,” he said. “We’re coaching a lot of these guys for the first time in sixth grade.”

This is the last season Brossart will be in Class 2A with district foes Holy Cross, Lloyd, Newport and Newport Central Catholic. In the past three years, Brossart is 0-12 against those teams, mostly blowouts, and won seven games overall against similar small-school competition to itself.

That’s a contrast to its first four years in Class 1A. After going 0-10 in both 2007 and 2008, Brossart went 11-11 the next two seasons. Brossart went 5-6 in 2009, beating Walton-Verona and Dayton plus three small-school downstate foes. Brossart started 5-0 in 2010 and finished 6-5, beating Ludlow and Dayton in district play. The Mustangs will rejoin that district in 2015, which also has Bellevue and Beechwood.

Dayton and Ludlow are non-district foes this year, along with Middletown Christian, Bracken County, Pendleton County and Gallatin County. Several of those teams are in the status of building a program as Brossart is. Brossart will play its home games at Scott High School again this season.

Until then, it’s full speed ahead.

“We had a little bit of a late start,” Wiggins said. “We have to work them on a different angle. This is a team effort and we’ll make no excuses.”